Finishing
Varnish: This
gives the surface of a painting a uniform sheen and protects the penetration of
dust into the unevenness of the paint.

Fantastic
Realism: Art
movement of the early 60s.

Fauvism:
A loose association of French Artists which constructed its paintings, ignoring
representational precision.

Figuration,
Figurative Painting:
Representational painting.

Figurative:
Describes artwork representing the form of an animal, a thing or a human.

Figurative
art/painting: An art form which is inspired by the visible world. It takes
visible objects as its base and then distorts or changes them to convey its
message. The human form is the most common base for these paintings.

Figure:
The form of a human, a thing or an animal.

Fontainebleau
School: Group of
mostly Italian Artists who were commissioned to decorate the Chateau of
Fontainebleau near Paris.

Form:
The basis of the anatomy of human body and of animals, the principles of growth
in plants, the methods of construction used in buildings, and the factors
underlying the phenomena of landscape etc.

Flat:
A type of block printing which exploits the mutual repulsion of water and
grease.

Fresco:
Wall painting, in which paint is applied to wet plaster, and blends with it as
it dries.

Frottage:
Technique in which the structures of materials (e.g wood) are made visible on
paper through rubbing.

Futurism:
Italian art movement founded by the writer F. T. Marnetti, with the publication
of the "Futurist Manifesto".

Gallery:
A room, building or institution where paintings and other artworks are
exhibited; and often where they are also sold. A place reserved for the display
of paintings and other work of art.

Garbhagriha:
‘Garbha’ means the womb and ‘griha’ house. In Indian temples, it is the
innermost part or the cella of the sanctuary. It is the holy of holies.

Garuda:
The vehicle of Vishnu. He is half-eagle and half-man. He devours serpents and
occupies an important place in Indian mythology. Depicted in Indian sculpture
with Vishnu or even as an individual deity.

Genre
Painting: Art
showing scenes from daily life.

Geometrical
Abstraction: A
reduction of the pictorial composition to clear geometrical forms.

Gestural
Painting: In
Modernism, a style in which the process of creation of the work is recorded in
the marks on the canvas.

Glaze:
Thin, transparent application of paint on dried layers of paint or on a ground.

Glue
Colors: These
produce a dead mat effect and looks distinctly darker when wet than when dry.

Golden
Section: A
proportion in which a line is divided into two so that the smaller part is to
the larger as the larger is to the whole.

Gopuram:
A gateway in medieval Indian temples which had a pyramidal structure at the top.

Gothic:
The art of the Middle Ages, which developed over various periods in all the arts
in Europe. Starting with the architecture of the 12th century, Gothic
was almost entirely dominated by religious tasks.

Gouache:
A painting technique using water based colors, which are opaque when dry.

Graphic
Art: Blanket term
for drawings and print based works.(e.g. etching, woodcut, engraving, etc.) on
paper.

Hasya
rasa: ‘Hasya’
means laughter. In Indian poetics hasya
rasa means humour or humourous. It is one of the nine rasas (navarasa).

Hinayana:
‘Hina’ – little; ‘Yana’ – vehicle. Literally - ‘The Little
Vehicle’.
An early form of Buddhism that emphasized concentration on the doctrines of
Buddhism. In sculpture instead of the figure of the Buddha, the Hinayana icons
depicted his umbrella, slippers and other things to indicate his presence. It is
also known as Theravada Buddhism. It is rather dogmatic and austere.

History
Painting: The
illustration of historical events, mythological, Biblical and literary themes
which are either realistic or idealized.

Historicism:
A revival of earlier artistic styles, to make a new style.

Hyperrealism:Art movement based on the principle of the illusion of reality and the
reality of illusion.

Iconography:
Meaning of the form and content of picture-signs. Also a term for the academic
discipline devoted to the investigation and classification of picture content.

Idealism:
Philosophy and artistic mode in which reality is not shown as it is, but in the
spirit of a particular idea.

Illusionism:
Painting which, with perspective and painterly devices, generates the optical
appearance of three-dimensionality and spatiality.

Impasto:
Application of paint (with spatula or large brush) in which the paint creates
the three-dimensional effect in the paint itself.

Impressionism:
An art movement formed around 1870 in France, concerned with capturing the
object in its momentary dependency on lighting.

Imprimitura:
A nice spreadable glaze.

Indra:
Most important of the Vedic gods. He is also called Purandara or breaker of
forts. He is personified as the Aryan war-lord leading them to victory against
demons. 250 Rig Vedic hymns are devoted to him. Regarded as the rain-god, people
prayed to him for adequate rain.

Informel:
Non-figurative painting of the second half of the 20th century.

Installation:
Large artistic arrangement in contemporary art.

Instant
Images: Term for
the works of F.Stella, which are to be recognized immediately.

Intaglio:
A type of printing in which the blocks are made by engraving the lines in metal
and then filling it with ink.

Interior
Painting:
Representation of interiors, or of scenes taking place in interiors.

Intermediate
colour:
They are produced by mixing unequal amounts of two primary colours. Intermediate
colours are located between the primary and secondary colours on a colour wheel.
Also known as tertiary colours.